ACORN. 7 



Ophra, under which the angel of God appeared to Gideon, 

 (Judges vi. 14. ) The oak by Shechem, under which Jacob 

 hid all the idols and ear-rings (Genes, xxxv. 4.) The oak 

 near Bethel which marked the grave of Deborah, and was 

 significantly called Allor-bachuth, (the oak of weeping. 

 Genes, xxxv. 8.) The classical reader will scarcely want 

 reminding that it was an oak-tree also which cost Milo of 

 Grotona, the most celebrated wrestler of Greece, and who 

 was always the conqueror in the games, his life. He pos- 

 sessed prodigious strength. It is related that he held a 

 pomegranate in his hand so firmly, without smashing or 

 hurting the fruit, that no person could open his fingers 

 strait, so as to take it from him. He would put his naked 

 foot on a quoit, greased with oil, and whatever effort was 

 made, it was impossible to shake him. His confidence in 

 his (almost supernatural) strength was fatal to him, for 

 having once found in his way an old oak-tree, nearly 

 opened by wedges, which had been forced by the hatchet 

 and hammer, he undertook to finish the operation, by 

 the power of his arms alone ; but in the effort he dis- 

 placed the wedges, and his hands were caught by the 

 two parts of the oak, which joining together again, 

 he was unable to liberate himself, and was devoured 

 by the wolves. 



The famous forest of Dodona, in Epirus, consisted of 

 oaks that were consecrated to Jupiter : this was one of the 

 most ancient oracles of which we have any particular 

 account. Herodotus gives two accounts of the rise of this 

 oracle, one of which clears up the mystery of the fable, 

 viz. that some Phoenician merchants carried off a priestess 

 of Thebes into Greece, where she took up her residence 

 in the forest of Dodona, and there, at the foot of an old 

 oak, erected a small chapel in honour of Jupiter, whose 

 priestess she had been at Thebes ; and this was the first 

 temple that was ever seen in Greece. Suidas informs us 



